Episode 3

[Shockeye]

 - Kit Fisto - the great tentically hero of the Clone Wars cartoon - goes down in one swing. LOL.
 - They shot my lovely blue twil'ek jedi in the back. Didn't even get to draw her saber. *sniff*
 

Those two things bugged me a bit also.  The Twil'eks name is Aayla Secura (played by this hottie) and she along with Kit Fisto and a few others had pretty extensive EU backstories spanning several books.  Then Lucas decides to add them to his movies just so he can kill them like bitches.

Is that you with her?

I bet he's the Qui-Gon wannabe in the background.

[Shockeye]

Grievous bugged the shit out of me.  Why is a robot coughing?  That's just stupid.  Old joints and motors squealing and wheezing as he moves, yes.  Sending the sound of a cough out of a speaker to show that he's an old, ailing robot, NO!

Did you miss the part where Kenobi rips some of his armor apart and it shows his insides, which are actually body parts? He had a heart, lungs, and stuff. Even his face was at least partially bio with a metal plate on top - so I assume he's some kind of cyborg.

Lucas envisioned him as the Darth Vader prototype.

[HaemishM]

Wow, he even sounds like the Stephen Glass character from Shattered Glass. Whiney pussy.

Surely you have some idea how frustrating the film industry is (and just "entertainment" in general, for that matter). I mean seriously --- I actually prefer sitting around posting on message boards to it.

Yes, I do. However, he was fucking handed one of the most high profile acting jobs on the fucking planet, and he blew it. He sucked monkey dick, everyone knew it and everyone said it, and suddenly he can't take the criticism. Had it been me, I'd have taken the check, blown it up to enormous proportions and posted it on every web site I could think of just to say, "You think I suck, but look at this, bitches!" Then I've had acted in anything I could. It's easy fucking money.

I mean, shit, Keanu Reeves has made a 20+ year career out of less acting talent.

[Arnold]

Yoda was a fucking coward. He suffers a small setback, as he gets his ass kicked off of the senate and falls. What does he do after that? He goes into hiding! Even that whiney bitch, Luke, didn't go running off after he got his ass kicked out of cloud city, and he lost a hand in the process! Yoda had all limbs intact.

It seemed that Mace and Yoda were superior to Sidious with lightsabers, but not with the force (at least that's how it seems with the Mace fight). And when Yoda and Sidious first start duking it out, Sidious trys run out the door after zapping him. Why? It's just my guess, but probably because he knew it'd come down to a saber fight.

When Yoda lost his saber though, he knew he it'd be suicide if he stayed.

When I called him a coward, I wasn't talking about duking it out, in that particular battle, until one of them fell.  I was talking about running away to "live to fight another day" type shit.  Instead, Yoda just runs, with no intention of coming back.

Luke, like his dad, was a whiney bitch.  He got his ass kicked by his dad and lost an appendage in the process.  Yet this whiney bitch managed to come back and fight 1 vs 2, when the 2 had cemented their power for over 20 years.  Yoda and Kenobi ran from an even fight with 2 Sith who were experiencing newfound power.  They decided to shift their burden to an infant.  They decided that instead of taking the Sith on, 2 vs 2, they would let Luke do the work, while outnumbered.

[Merusk]

I found this an amusing twist on the whole "A Jedi doesn't... " theme.

http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20050523.html

[stray]

Yes, I do. However, he was fucking handed one of the most high profile acting jobs on the fucking planet, and he blew it.

He really wasn't all that bad in this one.....But I digress.

The point is, sometimes this kind of career choice, whether it be music or film, starts having more than a few parallel with whoring. In his case, high class whoring -- one in which one of his job requirements is to be constantly spit upon. At a certain point, dignity takes priority over anything else. The joy one could get out of saying "I'm rich, bitch!!" isn't always good enough.

Even those who don't get spit upon feel this way from time to time. It's easier to just do.....Something else.

[Llava]

So Hayden Christiansen is to acting what Anakin Skywalker is to Jedi-dom.  Except Anakin had talent.

[Shockeye]

He really wasn't all that bad in this one.....But I digress.

Yes, he was. The fact you can't recognize bad acting when it's in front of you is a personal problem you might want to seek professional help with.

Episode 3 was bad. The fact that is was less bad than 1 and 2 does not mean it's a good movie.

[stray]

So Hayden Christiansen is to acting what Anakin Skywalker is to Jedi-dom.  Except Anakin had talent.

Dude, even Johnny Depp has talked the same way before (and I'm only mentioning it because you've pointed out how you like him).

[stray]

He really wasn't all that bad in this one.....But I digress.

Yes, he was. The fact you can't recognize bad acting when it's in front of you is a personal problem you might want to seek professional help with.

Here's me acting like I care what you have to say.

[El Gallo]

Because the Jedi were a bunch of asshats.  Kenobi and Yoda were the biggest jackasses of all and Qui Gon is laughing at them, despite not being in 2 movies.

Qui Gon was right about Anakin being the "chosen one" who will bring balance to the force.  Anakin is partially responsible for evening the odds, and making it 2 Jedi vs 2 Sith.

I think the balance he brings is by killing every jedi and palpatine, dying himself and leaving the world with Luke as the only force user.  I think the jedi had become arrogant, dogmatic and inflexible by Ep1 and needed to be wiped out to bring balance to the force.  Palpy obviously had to be wiped out as well, and nobody is able to do that but Vader.

I like the layers of Greek tragedy, especially around the prophecy, it's probably my favorite thing about the prequels.  
-Anakin ensures Padme's death by trying to avoid it.  
-Qui Gon and Obi Wan ensure the destruction of the jedi by training Anakin, thinking that he would be the one to defeat the Sith and reinvigorate the order.  
-Palpatine and his mentor Plagus (whichever one created Anakin, it's not really clear to me), tried to exploit the prophecy by creating the uber-sith who would destroy the jedi and bring the galaxy under the dark side forever, but they just ended up creating the guy that fulfilled the prophecy and destroyed not only them (which they must have known would happen) but sithdom.

This was all wiped out and replaced by Luke, who was no sith, but was not beholden to the decrepit, dogmatic teachings of the jedi order we see in Ep 1-3.  Oh shit everyone married their mom.

I also disliked how Lucas tried to paint Anakin as an innocent who slips to the dark side out of love.  I'm sorry, but when you slaughter a group of children, you are a fucking evil, perverted bastard.  There is no reason to try and pass you off as anything else.

That's boring as fuck, though; the interesting thing is how the man becomes evil.  If Macbeth had been born bad and spent the first act twirling his moustache going MWAHAHAHA, the play would flat out suck.   Who is a more interesting villian, Captain Ahab or the antagonist on some A-Team episode picked at random?  Of course, a move from love -> Hitler in space isn't really believable, but they did an ok [kinda] job of showing the shallow, immature nature of his love for her, which was more like idolatry and often used as an excuse for his self-obsession.

[Shockeye]

He really wasn't all that bad in this one.....But I digress.

Yes, he was. The fact you can't recognize bad acting when it's in front of you is a personal problem you might want to seek professional help with.

Here's me acting like I care what you have to say.

Get a job.

[El Gallo]

Yes, he was. The fact you can't recognize bad acting when it's in front of you is a personal problem you might want to seek professional help with.

He's "meh".  The lines are awful.  You would need a truly excellent actor to make lines that shitty work.  Especially when you have shitty dialogue + epic scale, which means you need someone who acts with the body, which almost no movie actors know how to do.  Hence, why McGregor, and Liam somewhat, stand out as the only people who pass the "utterly painful to watch" test in Ep 1-2.  McGregor is an excellent actor, and he can "act through" shitty lines with diction and (especially) posture.  In Ep 3, the lines are for the most part better (not great, not even good, but better), and Hayden was adequate.  Portman is pretty much a lost cause in all 3 movies, because she is not nearly good enough to make shitty lines not sound like shit, and for the most part she utterly shuts down and does not even try to act when someone else is speaking.

I saw a little bit of What a Girl Wants on HBO last night while making dinner, and saw Colin Firth look utterly shittastic because the story, dialogue and role were utterly shittastic, and that made me feel more sympathetic for Hayden.  I'll probably be back on the hateraide as soon as I erase that from my memory.

[Rasix]

Let's stop being asshats.  Please.  For the children? (This is not a response to mr. chicken)

[stray]

He really wasn't all that bad in this one.....But I digress.

Yes, he was. The fact you can't recognize bad acting when it's in front of you is a personal problem you might want to seek professional help with.

Here's me acting like I care what you have to say.

Get a job.

OK....Just so I can display my "vast knowledge" of dramatic technique, and to prove that I do know about "acting":

I'm outta here.. 

 






Have fun

[Threash]

 - Kit Fisto - the great tentically hero of the Clone Wars cartoon - goes down in one swing. LOL.
 - They shot my lovely blue twil'ek jedi in the back. Didn't even get to draw her saber. *sniff*
 

Those two things bugged me a bit also.  The Twil'eks name is Aayla Secura (played by this hottie) and she along with Kit Fisto and a few others had pretty extensive EU backstories spanning several books.  Then Lucas decides to add them to his movies just so he can kill them like bitches.

Is that you with her?

No, thats just some random picture i pulled of google :P

And Grievous was coughing because Windu crushed his chest cavity with the force in the last moments of the clone wars cartoon.  If you haven't seen the cartoons give them a lookse, i thought they did a much better job than lucas in all fronts.

[MrHat]

I saw a little bit of What a Girl Wants on HBO last night while making dinner, and saw Colin Firth look utterly shittastic because the story, dialogue and role were utterly shittastic, and that made me feel more sympathetic for Hayden.  I'll probably be back on the hateraide as soon as I erase that from my memory.

Don't lie.  You watched  the whole thing while eating dinner too.

[El Gallo]

Well, I only turned it on with 15 minutes or so left.  I would like to think that had I turned it on earlier I would have turned it off after 15 minutes or so I HAAATE YOU!

[Shockeye]

More STARS WARS Before PHANTOM?

Dateline: Tuesday, May 24, 2005
By: NEWS EDITOR
Source: Scoops

Another scooper, MK, wrote in with his story of meeting none other than George Lucas, while in Hawaii on his (MK’s) honeymoon. MK had this to say about his chance encounter with the Master:

I was vacationing at the Mandarin Oriental in Hawaii for my honeymoon in 2004. I ran into George Lucas and his family on the beach there. I was sitting in a hammock, just about to get up, and he asked me if I was done. I said yes and began to leave....

He said so "Where are you from" ... I said I was from NY. He said "Are you here for the shoot?" I said no, “Here on my honeymoon.”

I told him I was a big STAR WARS fan and was anxiously awaiting the conclusion of the most recent trilogy.

I asked him if STAR WARS was going to end with this next installment and.

He said, "'Star Wars' will never end. My involvement may, but the story will go on...."

I said what do you think would be more interesting.... telling a story prior to PHANTOM MENANCE or after RETURN OF THE JEDI?

(Lucas) said, no question about it, prior to PHANTOM MENACE. He said, that if he did ever do another storyline.... that he would do when the Jedi regained control of the universe from the Dark Lords (there were many of them) 800 years before PHANTOM MENACE. And a young Jedi named Yoda was instrumental in the effort.

None of these stories are (or can truly be) confirmed at this moment, so only time will tell.

[Triforcer]

Sweet merciful jesus...this thing will never end, will it?  I'm already shuddering to think of what the TV series will be like.

[Llava]

Hell, if Lucas had nothing to do with it, I'd be into seeing a cartoon done Clone Wars style about Yoda and company taking down the old Sith Lords.

[Margalis]

They can only see a few seconds into the future, at least with concrete reliability.  Just enough time to intercept a blaster shot, or what have you.  Beyond that extent, things get muddy and their precogntion becomes "prophecy" or whatever.  Some of the Jedi DO turn around and attempt to defend themselves, but ten or more guys blasting you at close-quarters is impossible to stop with a lightsaber.  As for the ones that are blasted all unsuspecting, perhaps they were simply concentrating on something else at the time.

Ha ha good point, good thing before that nobody ever thought of simultaneous fire.

He blocked my shot, now what?
Ok you fire!
OMG he blocked mine too!
Ok...hey you why don't you try?
WTF blocked again!

Here's a novel concept: one gun in each hand. Owned! Good thing everyone in the Star Wars universe has an IQ of 37.

[MrHat]

Ha ha good point, good thing before that nobody ever thought of simultaneous fire.

He blocked my shot, now what?
Ok you fire!
OMG he blocked mine too!
Ok...hey you why don't you try?
WTF blocked again!

Here's a novel concept: one gun in each hand. Owned! Good thing everyone in the Star Wars universe has an IQ of 37.

Haha, Red Vs. Blue - Jedi Edition

[MaceVanHoffen]

Sweet merciful jesus...this thing will never end, will it?  I'm already shuddering to think of what the TV series will be like.

I feel like Lord Vader at the end of III:  "Noooooooooooo!"  (God, the only thing that could've been done to improve that scene would have been a montage of Jar Jar Binks dying in gruesome ways at the hands of merciless puppies, possibly while chanting inane lines like "You broke my heart!" and "We shouldn't do this, it's not the Jedi puppy way!")

Hey, maybe if I sulk around like a rich brat and gripe about how acting sucks, they'll put me in a Vader suit and pay me millions.  Though, I might just try and grow a fat moneyneck and bitch about how the fanbois don't appreciate my newer work instead of realizing that I just suck.

[Shockeye]

Wanted: Darth Vader

By Josh Grossberg
Tue May 24,10:19 PM ET
 
Darth Vader is on the lam.
 
And this time, Yoda, Obi-Wan and Luke are not doing the hunting.

Someone impersonating the Dark Lord of the Sith--i.e., a guy in a Darth Vader helmet--held up a movie theater in Springfield, Illinois, and made off with a Death Star-sized load of credits.

The Darth doppelganger, who apparently blended right in with other moviegoers attending Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith at the Showplace Eight Theater around 9:15 p.m. Saturday, was not armed--even with a lightsaber, according to Lieutenant Rick Davis of the Springfield Police Department. Using the force--the brute kind--he pushed an employee away from the register and snashed the case.

"We don't know how much was taken," Davis told E! Online. "He was outside for awhile lurking around and then he took the opportunity to go inside and basically just grabbed the cash and ran."

The Vader raider then fled into some nearby woods. Police are investigating, but do not have any suspects.

The manager at Showplace Eight refused to comment, as did Lucasfilm.

But Anakin's evil alter ego is suddenly a one-Sith crime spree--and seemingly moving at light-speed.

In a copycat case, the Orlando Sentinel reports that a man disguised in a Dark Vader mask, Star Wars T-shirt and black pants, robbed a pizza delivery man in Kissimmee, Florida, on Sunday night.

According to Osceola police, someone phoned in an order with Pizza Best and delivery driver Alfred Santos took the call. Upon making the delivery, Santos told investigators that the masked man pulled out a stun gun and zapped the driver when he refused to hand over his cash.

Santos was okay and did not require medical treatment. Once again, however, the Darth disguisee managed to elude the law.

Joshua Griffin, who runs fan site TheForce.net, worries that such Vader sightings might give a bad name to real Star Wars fans.

"We trust an isolated incident like [the Illinois theater heist] won't prevent fans that like to attend the movies in costume to be stopped at the door," he said in a post.

Because as any good Jedi can tell you, fear is the path to the dark side...

[HaemishM]

Someone please stop George before he makes another shitty series of pre-prequel prequels. I love how if he were to actually do a prequel of TPM, he'd totally invalidate all the continuity established in the KOTOR games. You know, the stuff that was written ten times better than the prequel movies.

[Zane0]

I think they should be safe, as they're thousands of years ago.  Then again, George seems to go out of his way to screw up any continuity that does exist. 

[Teleku]

He said, that if he did ever do another storyline.... that he would do when the Jedi regained control of the universe from the Dark Lords (there were many of them) 800 years before PHANTOM MENACE.

That makes it sound like the Republic did not exist 800 years ago, and that the galaxy was ruled by the Sith before that.  So that would screw over the KOTOR material, as it had said the Republic had lasted 20,000 years straight.  They would probably have the Republic founded at the end of the of the new prequel, once all the Sith had been defeated.

[Shockeye]

May The Force Please Go Away

13 reasons to be hugely grateful that "Star Wars," the king of adolescent space epics, is finally over

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Can we just say it? Can we admit it now? Is it finally time?

Here goes: Thank the great Sith Lord above that the massive computer-driven marketing hellbeast that is the overblown "Star Wars" epic is finally over.

There I said it. Can we agree? Because the truth is, this most bloated of megamovie franchises hasn't been a certifiable cultural phenom, something to get truly excited about, for over 25 years. Admit it now, get it over with, move on to pretty happy things like puppies and porn and sunshine.

Look, I'm sorry, but I don't care how many gazillions the last three flicks have made at the box office from ubergeeks too old to get "Harry Potter" and too emotionally immature to graduate to real movies. Episodes I-III are mostly one thing and one thing only: huge exercises in CGI acrobatics, manic video games writ large, numbly awful movies full of fine actors reduced to stiff mannequins in bad monk robes and uncomfortable headpieces delivering stone-cold line readings seemingly written by that slightly twitchy tin-eared dweeb who sat next you in fifth-grade algebra, sweatingly.

It's all just a little -- how to put this carefully -- it's all just a little embarrassing.

Here, then, are 13 reasons to celebrate the end of the cute, overblown SW monster. Reasons for normal people to get back to caring about decent movies with subtle dialogue and true character development and nuanced plot lines not revolving around a monochromatic good/evil dialectic executed by barely emotive cartoon characters who have somehow been brainwashed into thinking they're making art. Admit these now, get it over with, move on to happy things like wine and sex and pleasures that have absolutely zero to do with whooshing lightsabers. OK?

1) Begone, Star Wars ubergeeks. Begone, terrifically strange and tragically lonely fan boys who camp out, weeks and months in advance, for SW tickets, even at the wrong theater. Drink the Kool-Aid if you must, boys. Your 15 minutes are way, way up. Never has a culture wished so deeply for a group of people to get deep into online porn and pop more Ritalin and stay the hell home.

2) Unfortunately, now the media coverage of such geeks will simply switch over to sad psychochristian fanatics who are already lining up for Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" sequel, "Dead Things I Pulverize with a Cuisinart and Then Smear All Over My Hairy Catholic Chest."

3) Poor Ewan McGregor. Poor Natalie Portman. Poor Liam Neeson. Fabulous actors so completely drained of nuance and character you are left wishing Obi Wan would shoot heroin and dive into a toilet and have a deformed religious experience, and that Neeson might veer off and start asking Princess Amidala what her favorite sexual position is and how many orgasms she has in a month and what she really thinks about when she sees Vader's throbbing red lightsaber.

4) Farewell, the odd and recurring hype that claims, every few years, that George Lucas might, in fact, be one of the truly great, visionary directors of all time. He isn't. Not by a long shot.

5) Darth Vader choking a giant red M&M candy. Darth Vader staring down that creepy Burger King mascot thing. Darth Vader hawking cell phones and Energizer batteries and floor cleaner and breakfast cereal and who the hell knows what else. Good riddance, odious sea of SW product tie-ins. Like the goddamn franchise needs more cash? Like seeing Darth Vader hawking tampons and aspirin and Darth Vader-branded bunion pads is in any way necessary? Please.

6) Let's just say it outright: Harrison Ford carried the first three movies, period. Carrie Fisher was amusing enough, the droids were cute and infinitely annoying, James Earl Jones' Vader voice work was nearly a character unto itself. But no one topped Ford at delivering a cynical line or expressing incredulity or offering up that famous "Who, me?" look that would later come to such wondrous fruition with Indiana Jones. "Star Wars" without Ford's dry humor and bewildered mug is like a cheesy pinball machine without the ball: all bells and whistles, few genuine pleasures.

7) Two words: Jim Henson. Next to Ford, Henson's astonishing Creature Shop gave the first movies brilliantly wacky life, silly and tangible and honest. The last three flicks are just painful reminders of how much he, and his entire Muppet universe, are missed in this world, and how much computers have drained many movies of their soul.

8) Did I mention Chewbacca? Did I mention that maddening commercial where Chewbacca is in the booth recording sounds for the new series of "Star Wars" cell phone ring tones and oh my freaking God let's just imagine that for a moment, the pale little sexually denuded dude sitting next to you in the café who gets a call on his Nokia and when it rings it sounds like that weird famous Chewbacca howl, and you turn and look at him and wonder what he might look like if he exploded into a million bloody little geek-boy pieces like, right now.

9) Enough with the dissecting of SW plot lines. Enough with the seeking of deep mythological parallels. Despite all those blogs and articles insisting SW is some sort of modern iteration of "Crime and Punishment" crossed with "Dr. Spock's Guide to Parenting," there is little of true intellectual substance to speak of in any of the SW flicks, and say what you will about old-time '60s radical Lucas' commendable desire to criticize current rabid right-wing ideology via his simple good/evil allegories, the overarching plot of SW is so basic and the execution so orthodox, you might as well be watching "The Bad News Bears," stoned. It's true.

10) The late, great master of myth Joseph Campbell loved the first three "Star Wars" movies. He saw in them a wonderful modern-day example of his favorite allegory and recurring cultural theme, the hero's journey. Joseph Campbell is dead now. Even he was ready to move the hell on.

11) This is from the recent Rolling Stone interview with Lucas, with Lucas examining a plot thread: "Is Anakin a product of a super-Sith who influenced the midichlorians to create him, or is he simply created by the midichlorians to bring forth prophecy, or was he created by the Force through the midichlorians? It's left up to the audience to decide." Note to George: You are 61 years old. Stop speaking like this before you hemorrhage something. And see item No. 9, above.

12) Raise your hand if you love the concept of prequels. Ten years of crappy CGI and 10 years of lumpy stiff acting and 28 years of waiting and you watch "Sith" where only the last 30 minutes really finds any sort of cinematic footing, and after all that screaming and all the cheeseball animation and all the slaughtered Jedis and the stilted, lifeless dialogue and heavy Vader wheezing and Yoda's irritating speech impediment, where do we finally end up at the end of Episode III? That's right: 1977. And who the hell wants to be back there?

13) I'll happily admit that the first three films were breathtakingly rich allegories for their time, landmark filmmaking, funny and quirky and cutting edge and cute fun for the kids, full of wry characters and state-of-the-art special effects saddled to a rather generic, by-the-numbers hero's journey sprinkled with the occasional subreference to Buddhism or the fine art of egolessness.

But.

But it must be stated and cannot be repeated enough and we have to admit it once and for all: The "Star Wars" films, each and every one of them and it feels like there are about 127 of them now, they remain, always and forever, movies for anxious, easily stupefied 10-year-old boys.

There I said it. Can we all just go outside now?

[Miguel]

I said what do you think would be more interesting.... telling a story prior to PHANTOM MENANCE or after RETURN OF THE JEDI?

If someone (other than Lucas) could come up with a good screenplay/dialog, I think the Thrawn story from Timothy Zahn's trilogy would be a good setting.  The only problem is that Luke, Leia, and Han Solo are central to those stories, and I don't want to see Mark Hamill whining on the big screen ever again.

Hamill, at the Jedi Academy: "Why won't these students listen to me?? Why why WHY WHY WWWHHHYYYYY??"
Yoda's blue ghost: "Stop bitching you must!"

[MaceVanHoffen]

9) Enough with the dissecting of SW plot lines. Enough with the seeking of deep mythological parallels. Despite all those blogs and articles insisting SW is some sort of modern iteration of "Crime and Punishment" crossed with "Dr. Spock's Guide to Parenting," there is little of true intellectual substance to speak of in any of the SW flicks, and say what you will about old-time '60s radical Lucas' commendable desire to criticize current rabid right-wing ideology via his simple good/evil allegories, the overarching plot of SW is so basic and the execution so orthodox, you might as well be watching "The Bad News Bears," stoned. It's true.

I'll go the other way and be a Star Wars apologist for a moment.

Every story by any storyteller, from Shakespeare to Ed Wood, has "deep mythological parallels."  Who created the myths in the first place?  People did.  People create stories as much for entertainment as to explain a certain point of view in terms that are safe, that can't be argued with on the basis of fact.  Lucas isn't any different.  He just didn't do it very well.

So, yeah, enough with the intellectual self-righteousness.  There's social relevance in almost any story, and it's healthy to discuss it.  I hate guys like that newspaper columnist who get off on thinking they're so superior because they don't seek deep meaning in pop culture.  You know what?  Pick any classic storyteller, and he was the pop culture of his day.

All this is just a longwinded way of saying I wish that guy would shut the hell up.

[Zane0]

He said, that if he did ever do another storyline.... that he would do when the Jedi regained control of the universe from the Dark Lords (there were many of them) 800 years before PHANTOM MENACE.

That makes it sound like the Republic did not exist 800 years ago, and that the galaxy was ruled by the Sith before that.  So that would screw over the KOTOR material, as it had said the Republic had lasted 20,000 years straight.  They would probably have the Republic founded at the end of the of the new prequel, once all the Sith had been defeated.

Oh, okay.  Missed that argument.

Well, in KOTOR I and especially 2, the Sith Lords essentially ruled the galaxy, but there still was a Republic.  The interview also says that the jedi "regained control of the universe from the Dark Lords" implying that jedi controlled the universe before that.  You'd think there'd be a democratic government with the jedi in control.  So, there shouldn't be a problem, I would think, but again, Lucas seems to hate continuity!

[Merusk]

All this is just a longwinded way of saying I wish that guy would shut the hell up.

I agree. And here I was thinking that the guy discussing the 'phenomenon' of "Red Staters Vs  Blue Staters in Reality TV" on NPR yesterday was the most pretentious jackass I'd ever heard.  Way to one-up him, Mr. Morford.

[MaceVanHoffen]

Well, in KOTOR I and especially 2, the Sith Lords essentially ruled the galaxy, but there still was a Republic.  The interview also says that the jedi "regained control of the universe from the Dark Lords" implying that jedi controlled the universe before that.  You'd think there'd be a democratic government with the jedi in control.

I'd like to see a movie about the true, ancient origins of the Sith.  Were they Jedi at the very beginning?  Another group that learned the Force?  For that matter, how did the Jedi get started way back when?

I would not, however, want Lucas involved in the project.  So really I'm just wanting something that will never happen.

[Shockeye]

Well, in KOTOR I and especially 2, the Sith Lords essentially ruled the galaxy, but there still was a Republic.  The interview also says that the jedi "regained control of the universe from the Dark Lords" implying that jedi controlled the universe before that.  You'd think there'd be a democratic government with the jedi in control.

I'd like to see a movie about the true, ancient origins of the Sith.  Were they Jedi at the very beginning?  Another group that learned the Force?  For that matter, how did the Jedi get started way back when?

I would not, however, want Lucas involved in the project.  So really I'm just wanting something that will never happen.

Star Wars Databank: An ancient order of Force-practitioners devoted to the dark side and determined to destroy the Jedi, the Sith were a menace long thought extinct. The current incarnation of the Sith is the result of a rogue Jedi dissident from the order. Two thousand years ago, this Jedi had come to the understanding that the true power of the Force lay not through contemplation and passivity. Only by tapping its dark side could its true potential be gained. The Jedi Council at the time balked at this new direction. The Dark Jedi was outcast, but he eventually gained followers to his new order. Awakening beliefs from the dark past, the new Sith cult continued to grow. With the promise of new powers attainable by tapping into the hateful energies of the dark side, it was only a matter of time before the order self-destructed. Internecine struggle by power-hungry Sith practioners dwindled their numbers.

One Sith had the cunning to survive. Darth Bane restructured the cult, so that there could only be two -- no more, no less -- a master, and an apprentice. Bane adopted cunning, subterfuge, and stealth as the fundamental tenets of the Sith order. Bane took an apprentice. When that apprentice succeeded him, that new Sith Lord would take an apprentice.

Thus, the Sith quietly continued for centuries, until the time of Darth Sidious and his apprentice, Darth Maul. By that time, the galaxy at large had believed the Sith to be extinct, a fabled threat from the past. Qui-Gon Jinn's report of a Sith attack on Tatooine was met by the Jedi Council with hesitation and skepticism. Surely if the Sith had returned, the Jedi would have detected it, they reasoned.

The dark side, for all its power, is ultimately hard to detect when required. A shadowy master like Darth Sidious was able to keep his presence a secret, even when sharing a world with the Jedi Temple.

With the death of Darth Maul at Naboo, the Jedi Council realized that the Sith menace was true. What they hadn't puzzled was whether Maul was the master, or the apprentice. Years would pass before the Sith menace arose once more, a menace that would eventually come to engulf the entire galaxy.

Expanded Universe:  Although the modern era of the Sith is attributed to Darth Bane, and the Dark Jedi that preceded him, the cult can find its roots further back in the galaxy's ancient past. Long before the Republic rose, there lived a culture on the planet Korriban. These primitive people were called the Sith, and the Force flowed strongly through their bloodlines. Although they didn't practice the Force as the Jedi would, they were talented in their own brand of magic.

In the early days of the Jedi, a great schism tore the order apart. Jedi who had tapped the forbidden power of the Force's dark side rebelled against their light-sided brothers. After a terrible war, the Dark Jedi were exiled from the Republic. Past the Republic's growing borders, these castaways discovered Korriban and the Sith people.

Powerful with the dark side, the Jedi outcasts set themselves up as gods on Korriban. The primitive Sith worshipped them as their lords, and so the Jedi grew, and built temples and monuments to celebrate their power. Millennia of interbreeding blurred the distinction between Sith native and offworlder, and the term Sith came to encompass not only the indigenous people of Korriban, but also the powerful overlords that ruled them.

Five thousand years ago, during the Sith Empire's golden age, a Republic explorer vessel stumbled upon the secluded worlds of the Sith. One Sith Lord, Naga Sadow, saw this as an opportunity to invade the Republic, and exact vengeance on the Jedi who had banished them. History would record the invasion that followed as the Great Hyperspace War, and it would be the first of many terrible conflicts between Jedi and Sith.

Time and again the Sith and Jedi would clash, with devastated worlds lying in their wake. The last great conflict took place on the scarred plains of Ruusan. The Sith Lord Kaan and his Brotherhood of Darkness did battle with the Jedi Army of Light. From this onslaught, one Sith escaped: Darth Bane. It was he who would resurrect the order with duplicity and secrecy in mind.